July in the garden
July has been an interesting monthβvery wet, often overcast even when it wasnβt raining, and then a few hot, dry (but still quite humid!) days π₯΅ There wasnβt a lot in bloomβand itβs also been a very poor year for butterflies π’ Iβve only seen a very few eastern tiger swallowtail, a handful of skippers, and what I presume was once again the admiral (red-spotted purple) out by the fig treeβbut none of the other usual suspects.
As is its wont, the gardenias continue putting out one or two random flowers; the βnormalβ flowering typically occurs in May, but Iβll usually find a stray flower every so often through to September.
The Celosia argentea is new; weβre working on a new island border along the street in the front yard, and this is one of the annuals weβre mixing in with lots of the regulars from around the yard or the buildings.
The black-eyed Susans, of course, cannot be stopped, making a sea of gold, green, and brown wherever they take root; the tiny pops of color on the right edge are candy lilies and bee balm.
The phlox from grandmother continues to grace us with clusters of purplish blooms.
Several of the candy lilies are also in bloom; some are more orange in color, while these are more red.
We extensively divided/thinned the bee balm (another gift from my late grandmother) this year, so much that we ran out of places to put it. These particular ones are from a four-foot section of one of the vegetable rows!
Iβm shocked that is is the first appearance of the silver-spotted skipper on this blog; itβs easily the largest of the skippers we usually see (most of which are thumbnail-sized!), but still much smaller than even the medium-sized butterflies like the gulf fritillary or common buckeye. On a zinnia, naturallyβ¦enjoying an afternoon snack.
Iβve seen only a few eastern tiger swallowtails π¦ this year, and this is the first one who would sit still for long enough for me to take a photo. Feeding from a candy lily (with a few black-eyed Susans in the background).
(This has been sitting in my drafts almost all week waiting for enough time to write the post and the alt textβ¦thankfully I still made it in July! π )
